AUGUSTA — Third-seeded Medomak Valley used a 24-4 second-half run to pull away from sixth-seeded Lawrence and grab a 62-44 victory in a Class A North boys’ basketball quarterfinal Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center.
Medomak (16-3) will face second-seeded Brewer (15-4) in a semifinal Wednesday.
Cameron Allaire led the Panthers with 21 points and eight rebounds, and Brandon Douglas chipped in with 13 points. Seth Powers led the Bulldogs (10-9) with 16 points. Mason Cooper added 12.
Allaire, a 6-foot-6 center, scored 18 in the second half, including the last five points of the third quarter to set the game-changing run in motion.
“It was just a matter of getting the ball inside and being in the right place at the right time,” Allaire said. “We started to run the ball down the court. I was just getting open and they fed me the ball.”
“They were shrinking the court on us and they kept us in check,” Medomak Coach Nick DePatsy said. “We didn’t have any space, so we just started to spread them out a little bit and try to create with our guards and get run-outs. And we played better defense.”
Guards Zach Starr and Douglas usually found Allaire or Cale Gee (six fourth-quarter points) for easy baskets after breaking down the defense.
Led by seven points from Cooper, Lawrence bounced back from a slow start to take the lead with an 11-4 run in the second quarter.
Baskets by Cooper and Powers gave the Bulldogs a 22-18 lead before DePatsy, held scoreless to that point, hit a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left to pull the Panthers within one at halftime.
The Bulldogs limited DePatsy to 10 points, but it was his first basket of the second half that put the Panthers in front for good at 31-30 late in the third. Allaire followed with an inside basket, then a layup off a steal that ended up being a three-point play and gave Medomak a 36-30 lead entering the fourth.
“In essence they started hitting shots and ours weren’t dropping,” Pellerin said. “We got into a spot for a few minutes where they started to get transition buckets. We said we had to keep it a half-court game. They started feeling it when they got a few transition buckets.”
Lawrence never rebounded after Gee scored six of the eight Medomak points in a run that made it 49-34. Allaire followed with back-to-back baskets inside to inflate the margin to 19.
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